Plant and Learn at Children's Gardening Programs

In 2006, pint-size visitors helped plant and harvest 500 pounds of vegetables, which were donated to a local food bank.

More than just flowers grow at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Virginia. When adults and kids visit the new Children's Garden, their understanding of the natural world increases, too, and that's a wonderful thing to watch.

Play and Learn All around the 2-acre plot, children explore with abandon. Some climb the low-hanging limbs of a mulberry tree. Others make believe that they're living in an international village. Still others help harvest vegetables. Almost everyone makes at least one trip to the top of the handicap-accessible tree house.

"A lot of kids these days don't have the opportunity to play outside," says education manager Randee Humphrey. "It's important for them to make a connection with the natural world so that as adults they can make informed decisions about the environment."

See, Touch, Understand "Don't touch!" is something you rarely hear in this garden. A small army of staff and volunteers encourages the shorter set to observe, touch, and smell as many plants as possible. There are also places to play in sand, dig in dirt, and splash through water.

Youngsters squeal with delight when they discover earthworms squirming in the dirt they've been digging. A volunteer lays a plump specimen in one child's outstretched hand, assuring her that worms don't bite. "It tickles," she says, giggling.

• Norfolk Botanical Garden: 6700 Azalea Garden Road, Norfolk, VA 23518; www.norfolkbotanicalgarden.org or (757) 441-5830. The 3-acre garden called World of Wonders provides a window to the world for kids.

"Fun in the Garden" is from the August 2007 issue of Southern Living. Because prices, dates, and other specifics are subject to change, please check all information to make sure it's still current before making your travel plans.